| Here is a post from another thread by ED FUQUA.
OK, so the first thing to remember is - this is a SLOW and PROGRESSIVE concept. You build a good strong foundation before moving on to the next exercise. This means either have your teacher add this to the work you are doing with them so that they can monitor your progress or record yourself and be AS OBJECTIVE AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN and not let yourself skate on anything just to keep moving forward. The temptation to "Oh why don't I just start HERE instead of at the beginning and save a bunch of time" doesn't really save you any time because you haven't built the foundation.
DUNGEON - to me it's the difference between having to see a red hexagonal thing on a post at an intersection that's got some writing on it and just knowing that it's a STOP sign and I should stop.
So starting at the beginning
1. INTERVALS IN THE FIRST OCTAVE
A. find the lowest note you can comfortably sing on the keyboard, that's going to be your "home" note. Let's say (for the sake of this example) that your note is C an octave below middle C.
B. make some "flash" cards (of you're doing this on your own) or get your teacher to randomly give you the second note, that is in the first octave, using the chromatic scale, up to the octave. So, given that your bottom note is C, your choices are Db/C#, D, D#/Eb, E, F. F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab, A, A#/Bb, B and C.
C Choose a card (or your teacher gives you a pitch). Play your home note (C) and the upper note (let's say the minor 6th, Ab) seperately, not in unison. So, BANG C then BANG Ab, right?
Now Play C again and sing the note. Without playing the Ab, sing that interval. Play C again, sing the Ab but this time after you SING the note, play the note on the piano. You want to pay attention to ANY adjustments you voice is making - did you need to bend up or down? Were you not hitting the pitch at all? etc. When you are singing the interval in tune and then play the note on the piano, it sounds like your voice just gets a little louder. When you get this "just a little louder" feeling and are singing all of your chromatic intervals IN TUNE, move to the second exercise which is.
MOVING BASS NOTE - instead of singing these against a constant bass note (your home note C), you have to sing every interval with a different bass note. So sitting at the keyboard, you say "I'm going to sing a minor third" (because you've made another set of flash cards with the intervals on them; if you are working with a teacher, they can randomly give you both the bottom note and the interval to sing) and sing the low note. You find that low note on the keyboard and then sing the minor third away from that note. Play the bottom, sing the top and then holding the top note, play it on the keyboard. Again, work till you have this in tune every time. Then the exercise is
IDENTIFYING INTERVALS - your teacher will play the interval in unison and hold it down. As that fades out, they will play it again and hold it down. WITHOUT VOCALIZING, identify the interval. If you are doing this yourself, you need to record yourself doing this (and after the second time when you hold it down fades out, you on the recording have to tell yourself what you just played). Which then becomes
SINGING THE INTERVAL THAT'S BEING HELD DOWN IN UNISON - it gets played once and you listen, the second time AFTER it fades, sing the bottom note then the top one. Then sing the bottom again and play the note to check it and then sing the top note and play it to check.
Then you run through the whole methodology again, but this time with intervals in the second octave. That is against your C note that is an octave below middle C, the other intervals instead of being BETWEEN your low note and middle C, they will be ABOVE middle C. This gets you working on tensions. Instead of C to E (a major third) you sing C to octave E (major 10th) etc. Which gets you to
TRIADS closed in root position - major, minor, diminished and augmented
CEG CEbG, CEbGb, CEG# and use the above methodology. Which gets you to
TRIADS closed in all inversions - C as root, C as third, C as fifth CEG, CEbAb, CFA etc
TRIADS open in root postion - CGE, CGEb, CGbEb, CG#E
TRIADS open in all inversions - C as root, then third , then fifth - CGE, CAbEb, CAF
as above.
That's about where I am now, this continues to 4 part chords (seventh chords) then 4 part with one tension, then 4 part with 2 tensions.
You get to a point where the triads lock in like a constellation or something, you aren't dealing with separate pitches or intervals, you are actually hearing the quality and color of the individual structure. Not "oh here's, the root." or "it's two major sixthes" or anything like that. You just hear it as a distinct and identifiable sound.
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